I turned to Deacon, “I want you to take it.” I said softly.
His eyes grew wide, and he shook his head adamantly.
I nodded and smiled, holding it out to him.
“Fuck no, Eli. I can’t take his guitar. Do you have any idea what that thing meant to him? There’s no fucking way I can take that. I can’t believe you’d even offer it.”
“I want someone that loves it to have it, and use it. While I do love it, I can’t do anything with it, but leave it hanging on this wall. He deserves for his memory to live through it, you deserve to carry on that memory and help it grow even more. Please take it. He heard you play once and never forgot you, or your talent; I know he’d want you to have it.”
“No, so just drop it…well, don’t drop it! Just…no.”
I moved closer to him and pushed the guitar toward him. He shook his head, turned to leave the room, and walked toward the staircase. Stopping before I followed behind him, I looked at the door one last time before closing it. I kissed the middle of my hand and placed it on the door, knowing I’d be back soon.
“I love you, daddy.” I whispered to the piece of wood.
Deacon was sitting halfway up the staircase, running his hands through his hair, which made me laugh because that’s what he always did when he was nervous.
“Take it.” I said and placed it on the step next to him.
He scooted as far away from the guitar as he could without falling from the step, and I laughed loudly.
“I promise it won’t bite you, honey. It really is a great guitar, you know? I think you’d like it.”
He didn’t say anything, he just kept staring at me, his eyes full of emotion threatening to spill over. He exhaled slowly, in perfect time with a reverent smile that spread across his lips. The way he was looking at me made my stomach drop and warmth spread through my body.
***
Deacon
“I love you.” I heard spill from my mouth, taking us both by surprise. “I love you.” I said it again, letting it soak in and liked how the words felt rolling off my tongue.
She smiled at me and then nodded toward that damn guitar. “You gonna take it, or not.”
“I tell you I love you, and all you wanna know is if I’m going to take the guitar?”
Her eyes danced with orneriness. “Yeah, I am, how I feel all depends on if you take the stupid guitar.”
“What?” I laughed. “So if I take the guitar, then you love me, and if I don’t take it, then you don’t love me?”
“Exactly.”
I shook my head at her odd use of logic and picked up the guitar and then raised my eyebrows at her.
“Hmm, I love you, too, Deacon.” She said in a breathy voice like she wanted to eat me alive, and it immediately made the blood rush south.
“Lord, don’t say it like that.” I told her.
“Like what?” She acted innocent, but I was already on to her game.
“Like you wanna rip my clothes off and take advantage of me.”
“Would it really be taking advantage of you? I mean, you do love me, after all.”
She took the guitar from me and leaned it against the wall. Then she moved in front of me and took two steps up until she was halfway to me.
“I guess you’re right, I’m not really an unwilling victim.”
She knelt, her knees between mine, and ran her hands up the insides of my legs. Her touch, even through my jeans, made me want to moan. Her hands pushed my shoulders back until I was lying on the steps and her mouth moved to the seam of my jeans. The heavy denim forced me to focus on every movement of her mouth as she licked, kissed, and bit her way up. I felt the warmth of her hands as she pulled at my waistband to unbuckle it.
I lifted my hips so she could slide them off. Her tongue snaked out to lick her bottom lip before she lightly bit down and moved her mouth to my dick. Her warm tongue soothed over every line and curve until finally taking me completely into her mouth. I groaned as my hips pushed forward, meeting her every stroke. Her mouth left me then her clothes disappeared. She moved over me and slowly began to descend. Right when I was primed and ready to enter her, she stopped.
“I’ve loved you for a while, Deacon. I wanted to give you time to feel the same.” She confessed.
I lightly pushed the hair out of her face, “I think I’ve loved you for a while, too, but it wasn’t until I saw what you were willing to share with me that I actually understood it.”
“I’d give you anything, Deacon. I love you.”
I cupped her face in my hands as I slowly lifted my hips to enter her.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Eli Blue
I made my normal drive to the office, like I did every morning. And like every morning, the black SUV followed closely behind. I entered the parking garage and watched as the arm of the gate lowered back into position and that’s when I hit the gas. I flew through the rows of cars making my way to the back exit as quickly as I could maneuver and prayed I’d lost my tail, but not daring to look behind me to see.
I didn’t let off the gas until I was miles away, and only then did I look behind me to see no black SUV in sight. I giggled at my small accomplishment then felt my stomach drop as I knew where my next stop was.
The drive to the prison seemed so much shorter when I was dreading it. I found the farthest parking spot to the prison, out of view of anyone that might be hovering there. Just walking down the sidewalk made my knees weak, and my stomach turn so violently, I wanted to hurl. But I finally made it inside, through the numerous check points, and found myself sitting across from a man that didn’t look nearly as scary as I’d envisioned.
“You must be Deacon’s ol’ lady. They said you were pretty, but damn!” Tony said with a huge smile.
His skin was even darker than Angela’s, almost the color of coffee with just a hint of milk. His shaved black hair was so short you could barely see the small springs standing atop his head. A long, light colored scar ran from the top of his forehead, down past his eye, and finally disappeared under his shirt. I couldn’t imagine what had caused such a large gash, or if I even wanted to know. Despite the scar and bright orange jumpsuit, Tony was very attractive, and he knew it.
“Hi, I’m Eli.” I finally said.
“So that’s your name then?” He said as his eyes slowly undressed my upper body.
I tapped on the glass lightly, drawing his attention back to my face.
“Yeah, that’s me.”
“So what’s a girl like you doing in a place like this? I can’t imagine you convinced Deacon to come for a visit.”
“No, he doesn’t know I’m here.” I admitted and cringed as a devilish smile spread across Tony’s face.
“Hmm, is that so?” He asked, slowly and deliberately.
“I want to know everything. I want to know what happened, if anything is still happening, all of it.”
“And what makes you think I’ll tell you when obviously Deacon didn’t?”
“Do you have something to hide?” I asked.
He laughed. “Woman, I’ve always got something to hide.”
I frowned at him; he obviously wasn’t going to be helpful. Pushing my chair back as it scraped loudly on the white linoleum floor, I placed my hands on the table and leaned as close to him as I could with the glass between us.
“If you aren’t going to help, then I’m wasting my time. I don’t know much about your friendship, but I do know Deacon saved your ass once since I’ve known him; Angela’s, too. But if you refuse to help me, well, then I guess that’s on you.”
I held his gaze without wavering as his eyes searched my face, waiting for me to back down.
“Put your skinny ass back in that chair, and calm the fuck down already.” He said while shaking his head at me. “What do you want to know?”
“Everything.” I said a bit too quickly.
“We ain’t got time for everything, gorgeous, so you’re gonna have to narrow it down a little
for me.”
“I can see the past haunting him, see it on his face daily. He won’t talk about it though; he just says he’s fine. I want him to be happy, I need to know he’s safe, that everything is okay.”
“And you think I can help you? I’m locked up, on the inside. How the hell am I supposed to know what’s making him unhappy?”
“You know him better than anyone else, you’ve known him the longest.”
“Look lady, if you want to know what’s bothering him, then you should ask him. Honestly, I couldn’t give two shits about what’s making him unhappy right now. I don’t see him trying to help me be happy, so why would I return the favor?”
“He says that, too, you know, ‘couldn’t give two shits.’ He says it and doesn’t realize how much it reminds him of you, but I can see it. His face drops and his eyes glaze over; it took me awhile to figure out why, but it’s because you say it, too. I know you mean a lot to him, and I think he means a lot to you, too.”
Tony’s head drooped low, and he rub him temples vigorously with his thumbs.
“That’s in the past, we fucked him over, and he wrote us off. We didn’t mean to, it just happened that way. I don’t blame him though, he’s moved on to bigger and better things since us.” He exhaled deeply. “I saved his ass once and ended up here. I don’t suppose I owe him any more favors. I killed a man gunnin’ for him, and he paid off a man to save my sister’s life. As far as I see, we’re squared away; clean slate.”
He stood and signaled to the guard he was done.
“Wait.” I called.
“Don’t come back, okay, you need to stay away. Stay in your pretty house, with your pretty things; don’t come back.”
I fell back into my chair, Tony’s words whirling in my mind, “killed a man gunnin’ for him.” The images that flashed in my head made my stomach turn, and my head swim. I don’t know how long I sat there staring into space, but a guard finally came and tapped on my shoulder.
“Ma’am, are you okay?”
I nodded and walked to the door to leave, not stopping until I reached my car and rested against the hood.
Footsteps clicked on the sidewalk behind me.
“Fancy meeting you here again…” I heard a man’s voice say.
***
Deacon
My phone rang for about the twentieth time in the last ten minutes. I’d been trying to ignore it while I got to know Eli’s guitar—I refused to call it mine, it wasn’t mine and never would be—I could never take her dad’s guitar, never.
My guitar didn’t even compare to the real thing; this guitar was thicker, heavier and practically vibrated with unused possibilities. The strings were old and pulled too tight, but the rest was perfectly preserved, like Kirk, himself, stood guard all these years, waiting for his guitar to make its way into my hands.
I looked down at my phone as it vibrated and danced on the table again. It was a number I didn’t know, so I really didn’t want to answer it. I didn’t want anyone fucking with my perfect day. I’d woke up, buried myself deep in Eli, and watched as the demons that haunted her cleared when she entered her dad’s office for the first time since he’d died. Fucking perfect day so far, and I just knew if I answered the phone, it would disappear as quickly as it had arrived.
My phone rang out again, but this time it was Duke.
“Hey man, what’s up?”
“Is Eli with you?” He asked frantically.
“Nope, she’s at work. Why?”
“She’s gone.” His voice sounded edgy.
“What? Who’s gone?” I asked as the anxiety in my core doubled then tripled.
“Shaw’s been trying to call you. He says Eli went to see Tony, and now she’s gone.”
“What?” I said, bolting from my chair and rushing toward the front door. “She went to the prison? By herself? Why the hell would she do that?”
“I don’t know man, you need to talk to Shaw.”
I hung up on Duke and dialed her number, over and over I dialed her number, but each time it went straight to voicemail, not even ringing once.
Why would she have gone to see Tony? She was fine this morning, happy. What would have made her go there alone?
I stood, dazed, halfway to the front door. A pounding on the door snapped me back and I rushed to it, ripping it open. I came face to face with a pissed off Shaw. He hands immediately collided with my chest, sending me back several steps.
“They took her! They fucking took her, and it’s your fault!” He screamed.
“Who took her? Tell me what is going on, damnit!” I yelled back at him.
“She went to see your pal, Tony, and Vito’s men got her before she could get in her car to leave.”
“How do you know this? Were you fucking following her?”
I took a step toward him as he took one toward me, cracking his neck from side to side.
“Someone was following her, it wasn’t me, but it was someone I hired. She needed to be watched, to ensure she was safe because of you. Obviously, you couldn’t keep her safe, so I tried to.”
“Fine ass job you did of that.” I said under my breath.
“Really, you’re gonna crack jokes right now?” He snapped.
I ignored his jab. “I’m going to see Tony. There has to be a reason she went to see him.”
“I’m coming with you, I want to look that piece of shit friend of yours in the face when he lies about what happened to her.”
“Tony wouldn’t have anything to do with this. He’s a pain in the ass, but he’d never hurt Eli.” I said, not quite as confident in my words as I should be.
“You better be right about that.”
“I will get her back, and if anyone so much as touches a single hair on her head, they will pay.”
We stood, toe to toe, until he nodded once.
Tony didn’t seem surprised to see me when he entered the visiting area.
“Where is she?” I demanded.
“Who?”
“Don’t fucking play games with me, damnit! Who took her?”
His eyes grew large as he shook his head. “I don’t know, Deac. She was here, but she left hours ago.”
“What did she want? Why would she come see you?”
“She was asking about you, said you were unhappy about something, and she wanted me to help her figure out what. I really don’t have a clue what she wanted, I told her to leave and never come back.”
“That better be the truth, I’ll fucking kill you if you’ve gotten her hurt!” Shaw yelled.
“Calm down, you’re gonna get us kicked outta here.” I told him as two guards moved closer to us.
“I swear, Deac, I have no idea what happened to her. She wasn’t here very long before I told her to leave, all we talked about was you. That chick cares about you something fierce, she was just sniffin’ for insights I didn’t give her. Told her we were even, and I didn’t owe either of ya a thing, then she left.”
“What did your guy see?” I asked Shaw.
“She ditched him at the parking garage at Savage Man, he lost her. Then we tracked her cell phone here. He got here just in time to see one of Vito’s guys snatch her by her car.”
“Vito?” Tony whispered.
“Are you sure it was Vito’s guys?” I asked.
“Yeah, he’s sure. One of the same guys he saw when you guys were here last time. He knows Vito’s guys, if he says it was, then it was.”
We both looked back at Tony, who immediately threw his hands up defensively.
“Hey, don’t look at me, I haven’t seen Vito since the last mess. I gave up on that shit then. I ain’t got nothing to do with this.”
“What about Angela? She still messin’ in Vito’s business?”
“No man, she ain’t. She’s gone, outta town ‘til I decide she comes back, and I don’t even like that you asked shit like that. Don’t be trying to blame your problems on my family.”
“Fuck you, Tony, don’t act like you’re hig
h and mighty now. You fucked over Eli and I last time, why wouldn’t I think you have again?” I reminded him.
“Last time was a mistake, you were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“Wrong place, wrong time my ass. Angela called me, said she’d fucked up and needed my help. You expect me to believe that shit wasn’t planned?”
“If shit was, I wasn’t the one doin’ the plannin’.” Tony snapped. “You seem to think I want your ass in the middle of my business, but I can set that shit straight right now, I don’t want you anywhere near it. Thought you’d know that by now. I fuckin’ put my ass in this shithole for you, and now you think I’d try to send trouble after you. Fuck you, man.”
“Both of you shut the fuck up, we’ve got bigger problems than which of you loves the other most. Vito took Elizabeth, and right now it doesn’t matter whose fault it is, it only matters how we’re going to get her back before they hurt her.” Shaw said.
“The last thing Vito will do is hurt her, he wants something from her—I’m assuming money. So the last thing he’s going to do is hurt her. But you guys need to get outta here, I’m betting it won’t be long before you hear his demands.” Tony added as he stood. “When you get her back, tell her…never mind, just find her ass, okay? And Deac, when you do, don’t ever let her go again, ya feel me?”
I nodded.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Eli Blue
It was completely dark and smelled like something had died and was rotting in the warm afternoon air. I didn’t have a clue where I was, and part of me didn’t want to know. Laying on my side, curled into a ball with my knees pushed into my chest and my hands tied under my legs, wasn’t the most comfortable position, but I figured it could get a lot worse than this.
I knew I should be scared, but I wasn’t. My dad’s music was filtering through my ears, bringing a sense of solace and calm with it. If I ever had a doubt they knew who my dad was, that had long since disappeared. A sharp pain shot down my right arm, through my leg, and finally swirled into my toes, but I closed my eyes and pictured my dad singing to me in his soft, aching voice. The sound of his voice inside my head quickly morphed to Deacon’s, which settled just as heavily.
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